(Interstate 60, TV: Back to the Future - The Animated Series)
Producers:
Peter Bray, Neil Canton, Ira Deutschman, Bob Gale and Peter Newman
Screenplay:
Bob Gale
Music :
Christophe Beck
Cast :
Neal Oliver: James Marsden
O.W. Grant: Gary Oldman
Lynn Linden: Amy Smart
Sally: Melyssa Ade
Dad: John Bourgeois
Mum: Roz Michaels
Nancy: Amy Stewart
Ray: Christopher Lloyd
Mr Baker: Michael J Fox
Interstate 60
sees promising law student, and occasional artist, Neal Oliver (James Marsden, right) trying to work out how to
get on in life by relying on a website to help him make difficult decisions that require a yes or no answer.
Naturally, for a young man, he wants to rebel against his parents - especially when they want different things than he does, not
least in the kind of car they think he should drive -
and it's a chance encounter with a strange guy in a red bowtie with a monkey pipe who grants wishes, O.W. Grant (Gary Oldman),
first masquerading in front of him as a waiter, who comes across people taking a trip along the Interstate 60 and helps them
out in various ways. However, one of the many things he doesn't understand is that this highway doesn't exist on any map.
With many situations happening to Neal that are too out-of-this-world to be coincidence and the alternative is that they're
some kind of indication of fate, this is a movie the starts off with a great premise and once his journey along the road
begins proper, he acquires a Magic 8-ball that effectively takes over from the website featured earlier.
Along the way, he visits a town called Banton, the only place nearby where drugs are legal, he sees the gorgeous Amy
Smart (right, with Marsden) appearing on various billboard signs that don't exist and there are excellent cameos from Michael J Fox,
Christopher Lloyd, Chris Cooper (below right, with Marsden) and Kurt Russell. And the morals learned are that you should be careful about what you wish
for because it might come true, and what happens in life is inevitable, otherwise it wouldn't have happened.
Overall, Interstate 60 is good to start with, but it's an elongated TV movie that starts to drag after the first hour and you're really
waiting for it to hurry up and end by the 80-minute mark, even if it does pick up a little towards the end. It would've been
great as a 30-minute weekly TV series, however. Even if you didn't check the credits you can tell from the script and the
cast that Back to the Future's Bob Gale was in the driving seat here, but the scripts he pulled off brilliantly
there really doesn't hold it together enough here.
Quality-wise, the picture isn't great as some indoor and dark scenes are rather washed out with poor encoding, while
brighter ones look great. On the flip side, the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is fantastic when it needs to deliver,
particular the thumping Relax from Frankie Goes To Hollywood in a nightclub later on in the film, although occasionally
the dialogue can disappear as the characters talk fast, requiring a few replays of the same line.
And that leads me on to another problem. There were no subtitles for this film. There wasn't any menu or extras on the promo
disc I received, either, although none of the latter are indicated on Amazon, Sendit or Play.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Interstate 60
sees promising law student, and occasional artist, Neal Oliver (James Marsden, right) trying to work out how to
get on in life by relying on a website to help him make difficult decisions that require a yes or no answer.
Along the way, he visits a town called Banton, the only place nearby where drugs are legal, he sees the gorgeous Amy
Smart (right, with Marsden) appearing on various billboard signs that don't exist and there are excellent cameos from Michael J Fox,
Christopher Lloyd, Chris Cooper (below right, with Marsden) and Kurt Russell. And the morals learned are that you should be careful about what you wish
for because it might come true, and what happens in life is inevitable, otherwise it wouldn't have happened.
